Horses & Dogs
Breeds
As you will see if you go to buy a horse or dog there are several different breeds that you can buy. You will also note that some have several variations for example the arabian as there are also Straight Spanish Arabians, Straight Egyptian Arabians and so on. Now if you breed two different types of the same breed although it is in a way pure in that you will get a single breed in the breedbox, many players especially the more serious ones will actually consider it to be impurely bred therefore it is best to stick to a single type of a breed, or if you do handle two types keep the breeding of them seperate as if they were two entirely different breeds. For more information on breeding visit the Breeding section. Another thing that you should be aware of is that some breeds are far more popular than others and therefore sell better than others. Welsh ponies, TBs, Hanoverians, Arabians and Quarter Horses are just some of the most popular breeds available.
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Ageing
Horses age one year every 7 days in real life. If a horse is bred on a monday then every monday it will gain a year. If you want to check what day your horse is bred on look on its home page and at its birthdate (see above). Take this date then go look on a calender to see what day that was. It is wise to make a note of the day each of your horses is born on either on its individual page or on your homepage so that you can quickly reference it if needed.
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Retirement
Once a horse reaches 21 or a dog reaches 16 it can no longer be bred or show trained. You will also see that on its page is an option to send it to 'the pasture'. Now if you have bred from this horse/dog you will not want to send it to pasture, thre reason for this is that after 7 days in the pasture the horse is actually deleted from the game and will appear as a 'broken' line on its offspring's pedigrees. The best thing to do is keep them fed and safe on your account. Some players actually create seperate accounts just for their retirees so that they are safe.
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HumaneAssociation
Any horses that do not have their board paid for 30 days can be sent to the Humane Association by the stable owner they are being boarded at. The original owner then has 7 days to claim back their horse. If they do not then it is put up for sale for ony $100 and its a case of first come first served any anyone could buy the horse. You can get some bargins horses this way but they are often fairly old without many points!
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StoresVLined
This is always a long running debate. If you use a store horse there are no lines to be broken but a horse with long quality lines is worth a lot as well! Its a case of balancing out the two. Use stores to input new blood, and use lined horses to continue traditions of great lines. See the Breeding section to look more at how lines are important.
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Highpointers
Now everyone wants highpointers but to be honest what is the definition of one? Well this depends a lot on you as a player and the breed you are breeding. Now if you are a new player although it is possible for you to train a 'true' highpointer (see training section) at first 10k will seem unattainable but for a horse to be considered in any way high pointed it needs to be approx 50k+ a true high pointer is 100k+ though! anything over 200k these days is special. If you dont ticket train but train daily you can look to reach 160-180k. I know this seems unattainable but if you train sensibly are regulary you could have a 100ker within approx 10-12 weeks!
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Values
Prices or values for horses do vary radically but the following shoudl act as a good guide.

If there are any INBRED or CROSSBRED lines you are looking at minimal cash in region of $1 per point, unless high pointed(20k+ minimum) it aint going to get much higher and it still wont make much difference if they are that well pointed unless some gullable fool comes along and doesn't check the lines.

If though the horse is PURE there is a good rule of $1mil per 1k points. This means a 5k horse is worth $5mil so don't go asking someone to sell you their 5k pure hanoverian for $500 because thats all you have as they will not sell it to you! If a pure horse has below 1k in points you cant be asking the $1mil per 1k rule. Generally $10k per 100 points works well. If a horse is over the age of 14-16 the price will also drop especially for a mare. NOTE currently prices are very low especially for horses under 30-40k points wise. And you will be looking more at $500k for every 1k points though for horses having only 1k you are looking very low. Ok this isn't really isn't a valid guide any more sadly though I still maintain it should be. Generally currently you can't expect to receive $1million unless the horse has at least 5k in points and has correct (eg unbroken/mixed) lines. With higher pointed horses you can look at up to $750k per 1 k if looking at horses with 50k+, $500k if below. $1mil per 1k is still obtainable but only for exceptional horses eg those with lines 150k+ throughout with no broken lines etc.

If there are BROKEN LINES (this means a decendent has been retired to pasture and doesn't appear) then this will reduce the value of the horse, how much will depend on where the broken line is. If it is the actual parent then the price will decrease a lot, such that a normally $1mil horse will only be worth approx $5k. The further back through the generations the break the less it will affect the value.
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